China News: Cancer Village | China Digital Times (CDT)

China news tagged with: cancer village (7)

RSS feed for this topic

Related tags

China’s “Cancer Villages” Bear Witness to Economic Boom

Reuters looks at the “cancer villages” that have sprung up around the heavily polluted river running through Shangba, Guangdong:

The river’s flow ranges from murky white to a bright shade of orange and the waters are so viscous that they barely ripple in the breeze. In Shangba, the river brings death, not sustenance.

“All the fish died, even chickens and ducks that drank from the river died. If you put your leg in the water, you’ll get rashes and a terrible itch,” said He Shuncai, a 34-year-old rice farmer who has lived in Shangba all his life.

“Last year alone, six people in our village died from cancer and they were in their 30s and 40s.”

Cancer casts a shadow over the villages in this region of China in southern Guangdong province, nestled among farmland contaminated by heavy metals used to make batteries, computer parts and other electronics devices.

Every year, an estimated 460,000 people die prematurely in China due to exposure to air and water pollution, according to a 2007 World Bank study.

Read more about “cancer villages” via CDT.
» Read more
- September 17, 2009 11:26 AM
A Map of China’s Cancer Villages

Chinese reporter Deng Fei and Doubleaf have Google Mapped China’s cancer villages. A screenshot is below. See the Google Map here.
The map also provides news report details on each of the listed villages. The following is a portion of that list, translated by CDT:

(1) Yancheng City, Funing County, Guhe Township, Yangqiao Village
Jiangnan Times: 2004 report

Due to its proximity to an agricultural chemical plant and two chemical factories, this village saw 20 people die of cancer (primarily lung cancer and esophageal cancer) between 2001-2004. Because the air and water were polluted, villagers would cover their mouths with a moist towel while sleeping. Ducks were raised not by the waterside, but rather in pig pens.

盐城市阜宁县古河镇洋桥村
（《江南时报》2004年报道）

因为靠近一家农药厂、两家化工厂，该村于2001—2004年有20多人死于癌症（以肺癌、食道癌为主）。因空气和水污染，村民睡觉时以湿毛巾捂口鼻，鸭子不在水边而在猪圈里放养。

(2) Yancheng City, Funing County, Yangji Township, Dongjin Village
China Business Report: 2008 report

After receiving heavy pollution from the Julong chemical factory, 100 villagers died of cancer between 2001-2006 (mainly esophageal cancer and lung cancer). Villagers would eat liver tablets every day. Villagers brought a lawsuit against the chemical factory, but each person would only receive a 70 yuan subsidy.

盐城市阜宁县杨集镇东进村
（《中国经营报》2008年报道）

受巨龙化工厂严重污染，2001—2006年5年间死于癌症（以食道癌、肺癌为主）的村民近100人，村民每天吃护肝片。化工厂曾被村民起诉，只开出每人70块钱的补助条件。

(3-4) Zhenjiang City, Dantu Region, Gaoqiao Township, Gaoqiao Village
Zhenjiang City, Dantu Region, Huangxu Township, Shimen Village
China Environmental News: 2004 report

Due to the pollution of the drainage network, treatments for malignancies at the regional hospital began to increase in 1997. 71% of those treated came from southeast village townships that were fairly economically developed.

镇江市丹徒区高桥镇高桥村
镇江市丹徒区黄墟镇土门村
（《中国环境报》2004年报道）

因水系污染，仅在区医院收治的恶性肿瘤病人从1997年起呈显著上升趋势，71％是来自本区经济比较发达的东南部乡镇。

(5) Nanchang City, Xinjian County, Wangcheng Township, *****
Jiangnan Metropolis Paper: 2004 report

When a chemical factory’s polluted water flowed into rice paddies, the paddies’ seedlings were all blackened. In 2004, in 80 households, nearly 20 people contracted cancer. Laryngeal cancer and lung cancer were the main types of cancer.

南昌市新建县望城镇璜溪垦殖场

（《江南都市报》2004年报道）

从化工厂里外漏的污水流进水稻田，将田里的水稻苗全部染黑。2004年，80户人家近20人患癌，以喉癌、肺癌为主。

(6) Yushan County, Yanrui Township, Guanshan Qiao Village
People’s Daily: 2006 report

Six limekilns near the village emitted fine coal ash throughout the year, leading to a decrease in production for over 100 acres of food provision fields. Even when it rained, the tops of leaves would retain a layer of white ash. In recent years, over 60 household groups had over 10 people die of cancer.

玉山县岩瑞镇关山桥村
（《人民日报》2006年报道）

村子附近的6个石灰窑常年外喷灰粉末、煤烟，导致关山桥村100多亩粮田减产，即使在下雨天，菜叶上也一层白灰。近年60余户的小组有10多人死于癌症。

(7) Deyang Shifang Shuangsheng Township, Tingjiang Village
China Economic Times: 2008 report

This village evaded the earthquake, but couldn’t escape pollution. In 2008, the number of people who died of cancer numbered at 50 to 60 people. Yang Jia was a young person of this village who helped with disaster relief efforts after the Wenchuan earthquake. His mother contracted oral cancer and then commited suicide by imbibing agricultural chemicals.

德阳什邡市双盛镇亭江村
（《中国经济时报》2008年报道）

该村躲过了地震却难逃污染，至2008年，癌症致死者达五六十人。该村在汶川地震中的抗震救灾英雄少年杨佳，其母于3年前因患口腔癌而喝下农药自尽。

(8) Shenqiu County, Zhouying Village (Huangmengying Village and 21 other villages)
Xi’An Evening News: 2004 report

For 14 years (1990-2004), over 100 people died of cancer in Shenqiu’s Huangmengying village, accounting for nearly half of all total deaths. Cancer developed as a result of industry on the waterfront, and uncontrolled discharge of sewage was caused by heavy water pollution. In all of Shenqiu County, 21 townships were contaminated. Villagers had to use credit to buy purified water.

沈丘县周营乡（黄孟营村等21个村庄）
（《西安晚报》2004年报道）

沈丘黄孟营村14年（1990-2004）间因癌死亡逾百人，占死亡总人数近半。癌症源于沙颍河上游工业、生活污水任意排放所造成的严重水污染。沈丘全县21个乡镇全部被污染，村民只得赊账买纯净水。

(9) Shaoguan, Wengyuan Counties; Xinjiang Township, Shangba village and 5 other villages.
Legal Daily: 2001 report

A large amount of mining waste water flowed into Shangba village. The little “village of fish and rice,” saw its arable land take on a brownish-red color. According to reports, an increasing number of villagers are contracting skin disease, liver disease, and cancer. As for ducks that go into the water, the fastest death happens within 4 to 5 hours, and the slowest occurs within 3 to 4 days.

韶关翁源县新江镇5个村庄
韶关翁源县新江镇（上坝村等5个村庄）
（《法制日报》2001年报道）

矿山开采产生的大量废水流入上坝村、小镇村，曾为“鱼米之乡”的小村，耕地变成了棕红色。至报道时，该村皮肤病、肝病、癌症患者越来越多，鸭子下水后，最快四五个小时就会死掉，最慢三四天也会死掉。

(10) Xiangfan City, Zhuji Township, Diwan Village
Changjiang Industry Paper: 2006 report

Within 3 years, a village of 3000 had over 100 people die of cancer. Among those, most were laborers between their thirties and fifties, in the prime of their lives. Villagers blame the nearby polluted river.

襄樊市朱集镇翟湾村

（《长江商报》2006年报道）

3年内3000人的村庄里100多人死于癌症，其中大多是30到50岁的青壮年劳力。村民认为这些是因为流经村旁的那条他们赖以生存的小河受到了严重污染。

Read more about China’s cancer villages, here.
» Read more
- May 8, 2009 9:39 PM
China ‘Cancer Village’ Pays Ultimate Price for Growth

Reuters reports on Liukuaizhuang, Tianjin, where one in fifty people have been diagnosed with cancer over the past ten years:

Three decades of reforms and opening up since 1978 have transformed China from a rigidly ideological backwater into the world’s fourth largest economy, lifting millions out of poverty, but not without a price.

Nationwide there are dozens of places like Liukuaizhuang, where factories have blackened streams, poisoned farmland and choked the air.

Just 120 kilometers south of Beijing, Liukuaizhuang was a quiet village before the dramatic economic boom was kicked off by a series of low-key Communist reforms on Dec 18, 1978.

Twenty years later almost 100 chemical plants were scattered across what used to be farmland and thirty years on someone in almost every family is dead or dying of cancer — the youngest just seven years old — according to a local activist.

Liukuaizhuang is mentioned on worstpolluted.org as part of a list of the ten worst pollution problems of 2008. Read CDT’s coverage of other so-called cancer villages in China.
» Read more
- December 14, 2008 7:03 PM
Scandal Of The Cancer Villages Lurks Behind China’s ‘Green’ Makeover

From The Observer:

The walls of the village have recently been repainted with trees, waterfalls and the uplifting slogan: ‘I will contribute to the success of the Olympics and help establish a civilised new community.’

The people of Hou Wang Ge Zhung, however, have other matters on their mind. Sitting in front of his traditional brick house a few yards away, Kong Qingyu, 77, a farmer, spoke about his brother’s recent death from throat cancer. ‘Everything was OK until the factory came and then people started to die. You can’t see the pollution. But it is there. The factory pumps out waste after midnight.’

In a side street, Kong Xiang We, 57, described her husband’s illness – stomach cancer, according to doctors from Beijing University. ‘He’s getting weaker and weaker,’ she said. ‘In the past two months there have been two new cases.’
» Read more
- June 21, 2008 10:46 PM
Shangba, China’s Village of Death – Sprol

Sprol.com looks at Shangba, a village of 3,300 in Guangdong:

When a closer look is taken, the people of Shangba have been living with a malevolent curse for years. In fact, this town is now known as “Village of Death.” It has earned this name because, over time, cancer has claimed the lives of approximately 80 percent of the Shangba townspeople. It seems that no one living in Shangba, young or old, is safe from the threat of cancer…

The source of this epidemic of cancer is most likely coming from the water, both river and ground water. Today the Hengshui River has been referred to as “The Dead River,” and with good reason. [Full text]

See also previous stories about Shangba and other “cancer villages.”

[Image: Via Sprol.com]
» Read more
- December 5, 2007 5:49 PM
Waiting for Death in Fetid Cancer Villages – Mary-Anne Toy

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

It has been a long time since the Feng Chan He, the River of Fertility, in Xiditou ran clear and locals could swim and fish.

Today it is fetid and silted up, a casualty of the factories that line its banks and that brought unprecedented prosperity to this poor farming district near the port city of Tianjin.

Xiditou is now one of China’s growing number of so-called cancer villages, where locals say that the gross air, water and soil pollution over decades has caused an extraordinarily high number of cancer cases. [Full Text]

Read also Villages doomed by China’s cancer rivers by Richard Spencer, China’s ‘cancer villages’ pay heavy price for economic progress by Verna Yu, and Pollution Poisons China’s Progress by David J. Lynch.
» Read more
- May 26, 2007 7:04 AM
China’s ‘Cancer Villages’ Pay Price – Dan Griffiths

From BBC News:

Shangba has become one of the country’s growing number of what have been called “cancer villages”.

A broad river runs to the side of the village, its shallow waters rippling over smooth stones. What they did not know was that mines further upstream were dumping their waste into it.

Scientist Chen Nengchang has been studying the cause and effects of the pollution on the village. He has found high levels of poisonous heavy metals in the water. He believes there is a direct connection between incidences of cancer and mining in the area. [Full Text]

- Also NYTimes’ Rivers Run Black, and Chinese Die of Cancer (Sept. 2004)

- China Daily’s story on “cancer village” of Jiangsu Province (May 2004)

- Yahoo News’ “Cancer village” highlights China’s water woes
» Read more
- January 17, 2007 7:20 PM